Now what will be the fate of the engine of Africa?

Oil and gas play no significant part in South Africa's economy... Economist.com

SHOOT: Not true, SASOL, voted the 2nd most respected South African company by Forbes this year, is a coal to liquids synthesiser. South Africa has the world's 5th largest coal endowment. SASOL and the state electricity utility - ESKOM - contyribute to making South Africa one the world's highest per capita emitters of CO2. SASOL is the leading technology of its kind in the world. However other minerals form a large part of South Africa's GDP, particularly gold, platinum and iron ore.

clipped from www.economist.com SOUTH AFRICA is not sub-Saharan Africa's most populous country, nor its fastest growing, but it remains the largest economy by a long way. World Bank estimates suggest that South Africa's GDP was close to $280 billion in 2007, well ahead of oil-rich Nigeria at $166 billion. As South Africans voted on Wednesday April 22nd the rest of the continent watched with care: the fate of the region's largest economy, and one of the main investors in the rest of Africa, will have a strong impact on its neighbours. Oil and gas play no significant part in South Africa's economy, but hydrocarbons determine the economic fortunes of Angola (a GDP of $59 billion) and Sudan ($48 billion).